


The Yamato's Song

by asthiathien



Category: Space Battleship Yamato | Star Blazers
Genre: Character Study, Freeform, Gen, Metaphors, Semi-Sentient Battleship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-30
Updated: 2014-08-30
Packaged: 2018-02-15 11:31:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2227443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asthiathien/pseuds/asthiathien
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Yamato is unique in all the cosmos, a ship whose soul burns bright and magnificent and whose decks throb with her heartbeat. She is mighty and powerful, and above all, she is alive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Phoenix's Whispers

Wherever one walks in the _Yamato_ , there is a steady thrum in the walls, in the metal floors, a bright, beautiful song that lodges deep in the bones and cannot be ignored.

When the _Yamato_ first launches, the hum is wild and unrestrained; there is power in her, yes, but a power uncontrolled, and that sher dangerous.

Later, during the Cometine invasion and afterwards, the pulse is solid and steady, controlled but not yet tamed.

By the time of the Dark Nebulan attacks, all who climb aboard her can feel the changes wrought upon the mighty battleship. The throb that travels continously through her hull has a new edge to it; one that has been tempered by battle, that burns bright but restrained, a tamed creature that is beginning to achieve a greatness beyond what they had seen from her before.

Once the Bolar Wars are over, there is a finer edge to the pulse, like a sword that was beginning to be sharpened. As the Dinguil attack and burst past every obstacle the Earthlings construct, there is a lethal sharpness to the thrum in her heart, a power that is controlled and tamed but still mighty.

When Derek steps aboard the _Fuyuzuki,_ the weak humming in her hull feels strange to him, because it is only the _Yamato's_ heart that is constructed of pure Iscandarium. And when she sinks beneath the waves, he feels a sudden, sharp pang of loss at the silencing of the steady beat of the _Yamato's_ heart, even though he knows he cannot feel from here the moment when she withered and died.

Derek wants to let her rest in peace, but Desslok is afire with the need to revive her spirit and he cannot bring himself to deny him. And he is more grateful than ever that he did not when he steps onto the fragment of hull encompassing the entire stern of the ship; he feels the beat of the _Yamato's_ heart through his feet, though it is weak and fading.

The damage done to his battleship is too great to simply revive her as she is; but Desslok is infused with the _Yamato's_ soul now, and he gives them a way to improve and change their great warship without damaging the integrity of her spirit.

When the _Yamato_ launches again, she is a different creature to all that has come before her; the throb of her soul is searing in its brightness, but so too is it warm and gentle and compassionate. To support the fractured core, they have added a Gamilashium shard to the engine, and the power the new element grants her can be felt immediately in the fierce intensity of her heartbeat. But power is not the only change that has been wrought; there is an edge like a dagger to her song, and a control he has never seen. The _Yamato_ is truly a warrior now.

But she is not his.

The soul of the _Yamato_ passes from one bearer to the next, and Derek can recognize when it has left him. Desslok is her avatar now, and Derek knows he will remain at her side until the end of days.


	2. Heart of a Battleship

The first time Desslok steps aboard the _Yamato_ , the fierce, unrestrained might in her soul makes his own heartbeat briefly resonate in tandem, because he can feel a similarity between them like nothing else he has ever sensed. And when he is forced to tear himself away from it, something deep in his soul laments for the loss.

When he next steps aboard her, he is startled by the transformation; the raw strength he felt remains, but it is tempered by control and a deadly edge that slashes into his heart and resonates all over again.

He can see the _Yamato_ in Derek, but it is a poor resemblance at best; Wildstar has in his heart the solidity and reliability of earth, just as Talan does. There is a power there, yes, but the slow, inexorable power of seismic waves, the immovable nature of stone.

But the _Yamato_ , in contrast, is a firebrand, blazing bright and brilliant and most importantly active and mighty and powerful, a being akin to the stars themselves. And this Desslok understands, for he too has the heart and soul of flame. And this is why he protests so when Derek says that they will leave the _Yamato_ in the ice, to her eternal rest. Because he does not see that a fire can have neither rest nor peace; the very idea is anathema to all that the flames stand for. The _Yamato_ was never meant to sleep in ice and cold; she was always meant to burn a trail through the stars and eventually rise to become them. And when she died, it would be in fire, trailing sparks across the darkness, because that is who and what she is. Fire was never meant to slip gently away to rest while in the comfort of slumber; it was meant to fall in battle with an explosion of light bright enough to blind the world, a death as fierce as she was in life.

But also, Desslok can empathize with her because they are kindred spirits, bright and burning with a greatness beyond anything any other can hope to achieve. Desslok cannot bear to see the _Yamato_ trapped in an icy tomb because, whenever he tries to envision such a fate for himself, he cannot, because it is the antithesis of everything he is.

And Derek cannot understand, not truly, because his soul is of the earth, and earth is everything fire is not; stable, solid, passive. And fire is ablaze with a light that is active and strong and impossible to ignore. Desslok can see how much Derek longs for his homeworld after so long in the stars, and he knows with fire's knowledge that Derek is so very tired of trying to be something he is different from in every aspect. So it does not truly come as a surprise when he tells Desslok he is leaving the _Yamato_ in his hands. But it does surprise him, if only a little, when Derek lays a hand on his shoulder and tells him that the soul of the _Yamato_ has passed to another.

He does not say who, but the identity is obvious.


End file.
